Ingredients:

• Ready made organic filo pastry (with no added sugar)

For the filling:

• 200g blanched almonds, toasted and ground
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 2tbsp orange blossom water
• 60g soya margarine or 4 tbsp cold pressed organic sunflower oil
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• a few drops of almond essence or amaretto liqueur
• 60g organic dried apricots, chopped into small pieces (make sure they are dark brown without sulphur dioxide or any other additives)
• 1 egg yolk (free range organic)

To brush:

• 2 tbsp soya margarine
• 6 tbsp honey

Method:

Danish pastries ready to go into the oven

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°. Line a baking tray with lightly greased parchment paper.
2. Put the blanched almonds under a grill until light brown – they will start to smell absolutely wonderful. Put them in a food processor together with the agave nectar and grind briefly. I like the almonds when they are still quite coarse. Add the orange blossom water and process a little bit more.
3. In a pan either melt the margarine or oil but make sure to keep the heat very low. Stir in the almond mixture and keep stirring for a few minutes.  Then leave to cool.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to a rough paste, then put in the fridge for half an hour.
5. Roll out the filo pastry on a lightly floured surface. Even with ready made filo pastry that says ready-rolled, I still like to roll it out more to a very thin sheet. Take a piece of the filling paste and roll it out to a sausage-like shape of about 1cm thick, just a little shorter as the width of the filo pastry. Take the filling and put on to the pastry, starting at one end. Roll the dough around it until it just covers the filling, then cut it with a sharp knife. Repeat this until the pastry and filling is finished. You should end up with about 12-14 long rolls. Now fold the ends of each of these inside and roll into a snake.
6. Place on the baking tray and brush with a little bit of melted soya margarine, before baking them for about 25 minutes until golden brown.
7. To finish off heat up the honey and drizzle over the ready baked pastries. You could also sprinkle with a little orange zest, cinnamon or vanilla sugar.